One out of every 112 people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to a new UN report.
That amounts to more than 65 million people -- or the equivalent of the 21st largest country in the world, if every displaced person was considered part of a single nation.
The statistics show a rapidly worsening trend of individuals being forced to flee from persecution, conflict and other threats to their well-being. The number of displaced people has jumped nearly 10 per cent from the year before (59.5 million) and more than 45 per cent compared to 2012, when there were only a reported 35.8 million displaced people.
These numbers include refugees, as well as Palestinian refugees, internally displaced people and asylum seekers.
The UN estimates 12.4 million people were newly displaced last year alone, which is the equivalent of 24 people being forced to flee every minute of every day last year.
The total number of refugees also jumped 12 per cent in 2015, with Europe taking in the bulk of the glut. While the Americas, Asia and the Middle East saw their refugee numbers decline slightly, Africa -- which doesn’t include North Africa here -- saw a 20-per-cent jump in refugees, while Europe saw their refugee count climb a staggering 43 per cent.
These displaced individuals aren’t equally spread out across the continent, however. Approximately 2.5 million of Europe’s 4.4 million refugees are in Turkey -- which dwarfs the next highest European totals of 316,000 in Germany, 314,000 in Russia and 273,000 in France.
Turkey has taken in by far the most refugees in the world, followed by Pakistan (approximately 1.5 million), Lebanon (1.1 million), Iran (1 million) and Ethiopia (0.7 million). Canada, with 136,000 refugees, ranks 29th on the list.
This chart shows the top 30 countries in terms of granting asylum to those seeking refuge.
Lebanon, especially, is bearing a large number of refugees compared to their national population -- 183 out of every 1,000 people in the country are currently refugees. Jordan, with 87 refugees per 1,000 habitats, is similarly inundated.
This is because most of the world’s refugees are currently coming from these countries’ neighbour: Syria. A whopping 4.9 million people from Syria were considered refugees at the end of last year.
Combined with Afghanistan’s 2.7 million refugees, the two countries account for about 47 per cent of the world’s refugees.
